Abstract
Data on personality for long-lived, highly social wild mammals with high cognitive abilities are rare. We investigated the personality structure of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) by using a large sample of semi-captive timber elephants in Myanmar. Data were collected during 2014–2017 using questionnaires, for which elephant riders (mahouts) rated 28 behavioural adjectives of elephants. Repeated questionnaires were obtained for each elephant from several raters whenever possible, resulting in 690 ratings of 150 female and 107 male elephants. We started by performing a confirmatory factor analysis to compare the fit of our data to a previously published captive elephant personality structure. Owing to a poor fit of this model to our data, we proceeded by performing explanatory factor analysis to determine the personality structure in our study population. This model suggested that personality in these elephants was manifested as three factors that we labelled as Attentiveness, Sociability and Aggressiveness. This structure did not differ between the sexes. These results provide the basis for future research on the link between personality and reproductive success in this endangered species and more generally, help to resolve the selective pressures on personalities in long-lived, highly social species.
Highlights
There is well established evidence for personalities in non-human animals [1], with personality defined as consistent individual differences in behaviour across time and between contexts [2]
In addition to consistent differences in state [4] and life- 2 history trade-offs [5] leading to the evolution of personality, behavioural consistency can coevolve with social responsiveness [6] and the specialization of individuals according to their social niche [7]
Since some differences between captive and semi-wild individuals were anticipated, and if we found evidence for such differences in our data, we would proceed by performing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on this set of 28 behavioural traits
Summary
There is well established evidence for personalities in non-human animals [1], with personality defined as consistent individual differences in behaviour across time and between contexts [2]. There has been a call to broaden the scope of animal personality research by including more behavioural traits alongside commonly investigated traits (boldness, activity, exploration, sociability and aggression) [12], as these usually form sets of correlated traits called behavioural syndromes [13] These multiple facets can be assessed by using the questionnaire approach, and this has been successfully applied to study personality differences in humans and other primates like chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans [10]. We used trait ratings from questionnaires to unravel the personality structure of a large population of semi-captive Asian elephants working in the timber industry in Myanmar; an excellent system for looking at individual differences in a long-lived species.
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